Friday, December 12, 2014

Steampunk Granny Interviews Tom Ryan on His Film "Faces"

I have met the most talented people
since I’ve started blogging a few years back. I love to promote the Independent
Arts including films, directors, producers, writers, and actors. With most of
the interviews I’ve done this past year, I owe to the talented actor, Joe
Parascand.

Joe recently told me about a new film
called Faces and also about the man responsible for the film.Tom Ryan was born and raised in Jersey City
N.J. and since his early childhood, he’s had a passion for horror films.

Tom recently put together an Independent
Production Company called “Theatre of Terror” and the first short film produced
was Day 9. Tom has just completed another film called Faces and we’re going to
learn a bit more about the film.

Tom
Ryan:
“Yes and to put it more simply, I’m more of a writer and director, but the
reason I’m an actor and producer is to support my films.” Laughing “Let’s face
it that’s the way it goes. I mean acting is fun and I’ve done a few projects
now and it’s been enjoyable, but first and foremost I mainly write and direct.”

Marie
Gilbert:“I’ve seen that you were in the
short film Day 9, but I haven’t had a chance to see it yet, but the T.V.
series, Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead, I have heard about this one before
because I had interviewed one of the actresses from the show, Genoveva Rossi.
But, what was the first film that you made? Was it Day 9?

Tom
Ryan:
“Yes, Day 9 was my film. It was my first short film that I actually put on
public display. I worked on other independent films, but they never made it
past my living room VCR. In Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead, I actually met Pat
Devaney, the creator of Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead, on the set of a web
series called Dead Road and (you can find that on www.deadroad.net) and that’s done
by my friend Corrado Gadaleta. Pat gave me the first two seasons of Zombie
Hunters to watch and after watching them, I was inspired to write my own zombie
short and that kind of launched me into the whole scene.”

Marie
Gilbert: “Did you ever write for the series Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead?”

Tom
Ryan:
“No, I never wrote anything for them. What happened was after writing Day 9 and
keeping in touch with Pat and the other creative minds behind Zombie Hunters,
they actually wrote me into one of the latest episodes of the series; episode
ten. They wrote me in as an F.B.I. agent, Sean O’Malley. Yeah, I’ve spent a lot
of time with these guys at conventions and festivals and they are a great group
of creative guys and that’s my involvement with Zombie Hunters: City of the
Dead. It’s a great show, but I had no involvement in the writing of the show
and only played an acting role on it.”

Marie
Gilbert: “Well, you never know. You might still get a chance to write for the
show.”

Tom
Ryan:
“Yeah, you never know.” Both of us are laughing.

Marie
Gilbert: “Can you tell me about the film Faces without giving too much away. I
did get to see the trailer you’d sent me and it was very interesting.”

Tom
Ryan:
“I try not to give too much away in the trailer, but what I can say is that
Faces is about a fellow named Frank Walker; a man down on his luck, and he’s
had a troubled past. He’s either spent some time incarcerated or in a mental
institution, but we never clarify that in the film. We kind of leave that up in
the air. He’s struggling getting himself back on his feet and he’s not a social
butterfly to say the least. He has no friends, no love life, no job and we come
into Frank’s life when he’s reaching the breaking point and when he’s not sure
how he’s going to make it.

One day Frank runs into Charlie (a local
guy who spends a lot of time in the bar with Frank played by Paul Gmitter).
Paul is a great character actor and a good friend of mine. Well Charlie follows
Frank home from the Pub and spends some time talking to him and, without going
into too much detail, Frank’s life changes drastically from the meeting. So the
movie kind of takes a rollercoaster ride from here and, something to just hang
out there, there is a big part of this film that I’m not telling you about.”

Marie
Gilbert: “Really?”

Tom
Ryan:
“The story that I explained to you now is in and of itself interesting, but
when you put in the added dimension I haven’t mentioned, it becomes much more interesting
but this is the most that I can say about the film. There is a lot more that
happens here.”

Marie
Gilbert: “Oh...okay, because when I saw the trailer I was thinking the film was
more like a crime drama or a thriller.”

Tom
Ryan:
“Yes, it’s definitely a thriller. That’s for sure, but like I said it has an
added dimension that will make you say, “Wow! I didn’t expect that.” That’s
hopefully what people will say when they watch this film; that they didn’t see
it coming.”

Marie
Gilbert: “You have Joe Parascand in the film and I know that Joe was in
Witches’ Blood and The Soulless...”

Tom
Ryan:
“Yes, the trilogy Mary Horror, Sheriff Tom vs. The Zombies, Witches’ Blood, The Soulless and he’s
also going to be appearing in the “Zombie Hunter: City of the Dead” and he just
wrapped up in Ryan Scott Weber’s new film Pretty
Fine Things. Ryan Scott Weber is also responsible for the Sheriff Tom
series.”

Tom
Ryan:
“Yes, Joe is a busy guy, but unfortunately he’s retiring from acting. I was
honored and very appreciative to have Joe as a part of our film because, to me,
it was one of Joe’s finest performances. He plays Detective Jack Donnelly in
the film that is investigating a series of murders. Joe did an awesome job and
the film wouldn’t have been the same without him and, in fact, when I wrote the
part; I had Joe in mind. We had a great match up there and he was awesome.”

Tom
Ryan:
“Yep, Edward X Young is probably best known for Mr. Hush and another film
called Green Monster. He has extensive experience in independent films and if
you look at his IMDb page, you’ll see all the films he has been in like the
Sheriff Tom films. Ed was great. I met Ed on the convention and festival
circuits and he is a fine actor. In, Faces,
what he brought to the character, Henry Benson, he just legitimized the
character.

It was great to see what he did with the
character because I think he really enjoyed this different type of demand on
his acting. In a lot of his films he plays an over the top and in your face
type of character, but in this film he plays a kind of sneering type of
business man and he just did such a fantastic job.

We also had Deana Demko, who has done a
ton of independent films and she also appeared in Witches Blood. A lot of these
guys crossed paths in the past. Bradley Creanzo, who did Bible Belt Slasher 1
& 2 and is working on a new film called Case
at Midnight which he is producing. We have Tom Schorr, another guy from
Zombie Hunters and then I had a couple of newcomers to the scene, Jason Greco
and Andrew La Bruno who played big parts in the film. Andrew also contributed
some of his soundtrack music to the film.

Yeah, we had just a great lineup of
people, great talents and a lot of people familiar to the independent scene,
but they played roles that where a little bit different than they are used to
being cast in. I thought it was great for them and it was definitely great for
the film.”

Marie
Gilbert: “I’m a big supporter of Independent Films because to me, I feel that
there is more freedom in the type of films that are made. As a director and
writer how do you like being an independent artist?”

Tom
Ryan:
“I feel the same way. There is a freedom and I can give you a great example.
With our Theatre of Terror Production Company, we don’t do the Indie Go-Go, or
the Kickstarter Campaign fund; we fund our own films. This allows us a lot of
freedom because people have asked me about raising money before and I’ve always
felt like I didn’t want my hands tied by the investors.

I want to know that if my movie stinks,
I can stop production on it and no one loses a dime for this except me. I want
to know that everything that I do in the film is based on what I want to do and
not based on having to satisfy an agreement with people that have contributed
money to the film. So, right now I’m in that rare level where I can fund my own
films and do what I want to do, cast who I want to cast and it’s wonderful and
it makes the experience a lot of fun. It’s fun in general, but because of the
lack of restrictions or the lack of demands, the artistic freedom is limitless.”

Marie
Gilbert: “You’re calling the shots.”

Tom
Ryan:
“Yeah and I think I’m easy to work with and that makes it fun too.” Laughing,
“I don’t stress anyone out.”

Marie
Gilbert: “Laughing, I’d think that important. Now before I ask you about your
music, when will the film come out? Will it premiere at first with the Theatre
of Terror in December or at the Macabre Faire Film Festival in January?”

Tom
Ryan:
“Actually, the film has already premiered at the Landmark Loews Theater in
Jersey City on October 10th. The Landmark Loews is a beautiful
theatre and it was a great location to have the film premiere and we had a
great turnout of over two hundred people. It was a big success. After that, we
had a screening West Jersey at the Little Chop of Horrors. We had a small screening
there and then most recently, Faces screened at Grindhouse Nights at Café Z in Union,
New Jersey. That’s an event where they screen independent films, either shorts
or features and we had the pleasure of being there on the screen with a couple
of other great films like Cleric and Infliction. We had a great response to the
film and now the big event is coming up with the Macabre Faire Film Festival
which is a part of the New York Horror Show. That’s running January 16, 17th
and 18th at the Upsky Hotel in Hauppauge, New York. Saturday the 17th
at 6 p.m. in Room # 3 you can see Faces
screening there. We’ll have a vendor’s table all weekend and we’ll be selling
Faces DVD’s, Vlad the Inhaler CD’s, tee-shirts and posters.”

Marie
Gilbert: “I’ll make sure people know this. Are there ever any agents or big
studios that come to the Macabre Faire because it’s such a big event? If you’re
showing your film an outside studio can approach you, right?”

Tom
Ryan:
“Yeah, right but I think with these festivals or conventions, it would mostly
be a distribution companies. That is basically the extent of it. I don’t think
you’ll run into anybody that’s...I could be wrong of course; I haven’t met
everybody, but I don’t think you’ll run into anybody from Miramax or Universal
that will say, “Hey I just saw your film in room #3.” Although, that would be
great, but those types of opportunities come with exposure. If I can get this
film a lot of exposure and a lot of coverage then it could lead to
opportunities like you mentioned.”

Marie
Gilbert: “Well, I’m hoping that my blog will do just that and, I’ll promote the
film on Facebook and Twitter.”

Tom
Ryan:
“Thank you.”

Marie
Gilbert: “I’ve been promoting Chris Eilenstine and Ryan Scott Weber with their
films and it is my pleasure to help independent writers, directors and I like
the independent films because of the freedom and the larger selections of genre
offered so I will be promoting you. But now, I want to ask you about your
band.”

Tom
Ryan:
“Yes, the band is “Vlad the Inhaler” and it’s a heavy rock band. We’re all
heavy metal fans back since we were teenagers in the 80’s. Our band is
definitely on the harder rock edge, but just like our films, we have a lot of
creative freedom and one thing that we learned over the years is that we don’t
like to get pigeon holed in a particular genre. So, if we’re not doing fast
heavy riffs we’re not the band we want to be and that’s just not true. We just
want to write songs that we like. Because of our influences we are going to
write heavy stuff, but there are going to be times when we write something
mellow, groovy, reggae, punk rock or whatever because we have a lot of freedom
with what we write, but our music does have a heavy edge.”

Marie
Gilbert: “You have a studio album out called “The Human Infection.”

Tom
Ryan:
“The Human Infection is an eleven song CD, all original music. The album has a
flow to it and there is a lot of variety of music to hear on there.”

Marie
Gilbert: “Is there anything you want to say to fans about the upcoming CD?”

Tom
Ryan:
“The band right now is in the process of writing new music for the next album
and we don’t have any gigs planned right now, but anyone can feel free to
contact us via Facebook or on our website which is vladtheinhaler.com. Check
out the music and we are still selling CD’s and other merchandise of sale too.”

Marie
Gilbert: “Did you use any of your music in Faces?”

Tom
Ryan:
“Yes, the film Faces is based on one of our songs and that song appears in the
film along with another song, “I Don’t Need”. We also have some music in the
film provided by Sylvia Platypus which is a great band and they were nice
enough to lend us a couple of songs from their first album. We also have music
from some good friends of mine called “Polyabuse” so we have some good
offerings in Faces as far as music goes.

Marie
Gilbert: “It’s been a pleasure talking to you.”

Tom
Ryan:
“Same here.”

Okay my little zombie
snacks, if you have a chance try to go to the Macabre Faire on January 17th
and head to room # 3 at 6 p.m. to see Faces
and tell Tom, Steampunk Granny sent you.